New Music Monday – Ash Stemke

After figuring out some technical difficulties with my website hosting, I am back in business and now I can finally get back to making blog posts with greater frequency! Today I am staring a series that I hope to continue on a weekly basis, which I am calling “New Music Monday.” (#NMM?) What I hope to do with this series is highlight a piece by a living composer that I find interesting.

To kick off this series, I present Emergent for string quartet by Ash Stemke. Ash is a first year doctoral composition student at Florida State, and Emergent was recently performed on a recital at FSU along with other new graduate student composers. As a string player and as a composer particularly interested in formal structure, this piece in particular stood out to me from the concert. I especially enjoyed his use of artificial harmonics to create an “otherworldly chorale” affect. Check out the piece below, and feel free to follow him on social media. Links are also below!